MONROE — The city has recently completed some much-needed upgrades to a portion of Honey Creek, strengthening the stream bank for a vital stretch of the waterway and helping improve local water quality.

In addition to carrying stormwater runoff from city neighborhoods and streets, Honey Creek also accepts the discharge from the final treated water at the city wastewater treatment plant. About 1,000 feet of the creek has had the new work done, ending approximately where the stream enters Honey Creek Park near the Monroe Times building.

The work involved several steps, according to Monroe Water/Wastewater Superintendent Mike Kennison:

●  Tree removal along the stream’s banks

●  Cutting the bank of the creek back at a 5:1 slope

●  Adding streambank protective measures such as rip-rap to protect the banks from erosion

●  Wetland protection and seeding along the banks

Kennison, meanwhile, said the city may expand the project in the future.

“There has been talk of doing the remaining portion right by the Times and possibly going into Twinning Park,” Kennison said of the project. 

Kennison said the work also has created a needed phosphorous “offset” to mitigate discharge from the wastewater treatment process for the city. According to the DNR, phosphorous credits help municipalities to manage discharge from their various water/waste sources through a process known as water quality trading.

“Generally, water quality trading involves a point source facing relatively high pollutant reduction costs compensating another party to achieve less costly pollutant reduction with the same or greater water quality benefit,” said the DNR, on the agency’s web site. “In other words, water quality trading provides point sources with the flexibility to acquire pollutant reductions from other sources in the watershed to offset their point source load so that they will comply with their own permit requirements.”